After abandoning his noble family name and losing his home and purpose, Raphael perfected his sword skills by engaging in many battles. Will you help him on his quest to seek Soul Edge?​ #SOULCALIBUR VI pic.twitter.com/17q2fYSlMM

Soul Calibur 6 - Cervantes announcement

Bandai Namco has announced Cervantes will be coming to the game at launch, with a new trailer debuting the dread pirates' moveset.

The trailer follows up from a leak that seemed to reveal Cervantes and Raphael in the game.

Cervantes returns with his familiar weapons, Acheron and Nirvana, and is still using his "Memories of Soul Edge" fighting style, too.

Cervantes is described as "the shell of a proud man" in the trailer though - something that's a new description for him.

Check out the trailer below.

Soul Calibur VI - Azwel Announcement

Bandai Namco has revealed the second original character coming to Soul Calibur 6.

Named Azwel, the new character looks reminiscent to Soul Calibur V's Algol - albeit with a few refinements. Azwel has the ability to summon weapons from thin air and use them to control his opponent's spacing in the arena.

It looks like Azwel may well be the boss character for the game - either that, or he's going to have a pretty big part in the story.

The text accompanying his trailer reads:

"You shall be sacrificed for the human race!" Azwel, Leader of Humanity, wields the powerful weapon Palindrome which grants him the ability to manifest weapons out of thin air!”

Bandai Namco has announced a new character for Soul Calibur VI - the Bird of Death, Tira.

Introduced back in Soul Calibur III, Tira uses her own special fighting style - Dance of Death - to run rings around her enemies, whilst delighting in the blood she sheds.

Bandai Namco has revealed that Tira will be introduced as a pre-order bonus initially, before being made available as standalone DLC. She will also be available as part of the Season Pass.

Bandai Namco also revealed that online play will allow custom characters, allowing players to fight using their own custom characters or favorite Soulcalibur VI fighters against other players from across the world in both casual or ranked matches.

Soul Calibur VI - Astaroth and Seong Mi-Na Update

We usually get Soul Calibur character updates drop one by one, but this week (likely thanks to the EVO finals that took place over the weekend), we saw Bandai Namco opt to drop two new trailers: one confirming Astaroth and one confirming Seong Mi-Na.

Astaroth shouldn't be much of a surprise for anyone that's been following the series: the demonic hellguard has been a staple in the roster since the early days of Soul Calibur, and his heavy-hitting, slow playstyle offsets some of the more rapid series regulars.

We've also seen Seoung Mi-Na added. The naginata-wielding fighter was in the original game that started the series, but didn't make the cut in 2012's Soul Calibur 5 - much to many fans' disappointment.

We see the internet is already happily welcoming her back.

This brings the confirmed roster up to 17 characters.

(Pic: DS)

Soul Calibur 6 - OVERVIEW

This is the first Soul Calibur Game in six years, and Bandai Namco is planning to add a renewed sense of style and refinement to the core gameplay, and it's heading back to a setting of the first two games in order to achieve that.

The game is built in Unreal Engine 4 and adds some new mechanics to the series: Reversal Edge has been introduced, which sees players enter a sort-of Rock, Paper, Scissors contest, with the winner landing massive damage on their foe and breaking their armour.

Guard Impacts, Critical Edges and counter moves are also returning.

You can see our hands-on preview of the game below, or head further down to see more information on the characters we've seen so far.

Soul Calibur 6 Screenshots

SOULCALIBUR VI is coming in 2018 on PS4, XB1 and PC.

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Soul Calibur 6 - Designed for 'fun'

Soul Calibur 6 has been designed primarily to be a fun title, a new interview with the development team has revealed.

In an interview with VG247, Soul Calibur 6 producer Motohiro Okubo explains that the game has been developed to appease competitive players - but the main concern has been making a fun, engaging title.

“Our priority when developing the game first and foremost is creating something that’s fun and engaging for the player to experience," explained Okubo before going on to talk about the roster selection process and balancing taking a 'very long time'.

“If by making a great game there’s then a voice from the scene that says ‘hey, we could use this as a good, very competitive game,’ then that might be the trigger for us thinking about and tackling about what kind of support we can offer.”

So does that mean, at launch, Soul Calibur 6 will be more appealing to the mass market, with hardcore fighting game support perhaps coming later?

(Pic: DS)

Soul Calibur 6 - Hands-On Preview

Soul Calibur VI is a very good fighting game. That’s the crux of it. Coming from last generation’s Soul Calibur V, we weren’t expecting the title to be as good as it is, to be honest. The last game was poorly balanced, poorly supported and kinda ugly… the hype that accompanied the game at launch quickly dying off as people started to pick apart its flaws.

Soul Calibur VI, however, is a fresh start. The game is sort-of a reboot, going back in time in the game’s universe and returning to classic characters, revisiting classic movesets. And the game is so much better for it. The likes of Ivy, Mitsurugi, Kilik, Sophitia, Siegfried, Nightmare, Yoshitmitsu, Xianghua and Taki all return with elements of their classic movesets in place, whilst newcomers Geralt of Rivia and Groh come in to shake things up a little with robust mid-range combat.

Returning from Soul Calibur III, there’s also Zasalamel - the scythe-wielding chronomancer that seems to have a pretty integral role in the game’s narrative. As always, the scythe-user is pretty hard to use, and the fast, well-animated fluid combat in the game remains impressive - even if you can’t use the zoner’s odd moveset.

Critical Edge moves are easier to pull off than in the last version of the game, but the Soul Gauge charges more slowly to offset that (in real terms: that means you’re less likely to see these Supers trotted out multiple times per match - making them more impactful and more impressive).

The whole point of defending in Soul Calibur - Guard Impacting and Guard Breaking - also no longer costs meter. This means those with adept timing and that can predict enemymovesetscancapitalise, push back enemies with well-timed parries and not have to suffer a Soul Gauge penalty for the risk. It’s a return to the system that made the first few Soul Calibur games truly great, and we’re happy with the change.

The biggest addition to the game this time around is the Reversal Edge. This mechanic is designed to allow players on the back foot to regain some ground: tap a button to perform a cinematic parry, and the battle falls into slow-motion. Here, you’ll need to pay close attention to the move your opponent is telegraphing on-screen in order to counter or get in quicker. It’s basically rock-paper-scissors (for better and worse) and whilst we were playing the game, we heard talk of the mechanic potentially being outlawed from competitive play.

It breaks the flow of combat, can interrupt combos and - despite being blockable - just feels a bit cheap. It does at leastdemocratisethe game a little bit and allow newer players to get in on the fun, but… well, we have our concerns.

Other than that, the game is a solid, beautiful fighting experience - the finest, weapons-based fighting game on the market. We’re very keen to get our hands on the finalbuild,because once again, Soul Calibur looks like it’ll be best in class in the genre.

(Pic: DS)

Soul Calibur 6 - Story Mode Revealed

Soul Calibur VI's Story Mode has been detailed by Bandai Namco.

According to the publisher, the mode will be called Soul Chronicle. The new mode is a story experience that depicts the origins of the Soul Calibur and Soul Edge whilst mixing in different parts of the story and all the characters in the game.

The main story will be shown in 2D demos, 3D demos, 2D illustrations, conversational parts, and battles.

However, episodes that aren’t part of the main story will be shown mainly in 2D illustrations, conversational parts, and battles (so no demos, read: cutscenes).

Bandai Namco states that this will chart the series origin story, with something veterans and newcomers alike can enjoy.

Players will get to experience the story that takes place from year 1583 to 1590. Depending on narrative events, certain modifiers might be added to the game - if previous Soul Calibur games are anything to go by, explosive hits, the inability to jump, low gravity and more may come into play.

SOUL CALIBUR 6 Story mode will be a more complicated affair than it was in Soul Calibur 5 (thankfully) and seeks to explain the series' origins.

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Soul Calibur 6 - Story

We know that developer Bandai Namco's goal is to make SoulCaliur6 feel more like the old games - so you could call this game something of a soft reboot.

A recent interview with producer Motohiro Okubo reveals that the development team is targeting a Soul Calibur and Soul Calibur IIfeeling.

"First, in SC6 Mitsurugi and Sophitia have become young again, in terms of timeline we will be returning to SC1 & SC2," reveals Okubo in aninterview.

"Reviewing the whole series, the origin, the tale of where Soul Edge separates from Soul Calibur haven’t been told in great detail, but that is where we think is most important and where we are confident (in telling a moving tale perhaps?) and we would like to tell this tale, and for that returning the timeline back to SC1 & SC2.

"You might think,heydoesn’t that make the story the same as SC1 & SC2? Well, how the destiny and fate of each characterturnsout, please play to find out after the game is released."

(Pic: DS)

Soul Calibur VI - Full Roster

Here are all the characters that we know are stepping back onto the stage of history in the sixth incarnation of the fighting game so far.

Geralt of Rivia

Grøh

Ivy

Kilik

Mitsurugi

Nightmare

Siegfried

Sophitia

Taki

Xianghua

Talim

Yoshimitsu

Voldo

Astaroth

Seoung Mi-Na

You can definitely expect more characters to get announced in the run-up to launch.

Soul Calibur 6 - Character Creation Update

That latest news from Bandai Namco regarding Soul Calibur VI is that it'll include character creation - a fanfavouritefeature in the series.

SoulCalibur VI producer Motohiro Okubo has confirmed that character creation will return in alivestream.

Okubo appeared on Twitch's E3livestream, where he announced that character creation willincludedupcoming fighter.

He did note, however, that the development team isn't fully sure how it will be implemented just yet - but I'm sure we can expect a trailer before the game launches.